Oct

19

1939

One German's view of the war

Not every German supported the Nazis or the war with Poland. Von Hassell’s diaries provide an alternative perspective from inside Germany:

Among well-informed people in Berlin I noticed a good deal of despair. In wide circles there is still rejoicing over the “inspired chess move of the pact with Russia,” over the victories in Poland, over the performance of the submarines and the Air Corps against England. But among informed people there is growing awareness of our impending disaster.

The principal sentiments are: the conviction that the war cannot be won militarily; a realization of the highly dangerous economic situation; the feeling of being led by criminal adventurers; and the disgrace that has sullied the German name through the conduct of the war in Poland; namely, the brutal use of air power and the shocking bestialities of the SS, especially toward the Jews. The cruelties of the Poles against the German minority are a fact, too, but somehow excusable psychologically. When people use their revolvers to shoot down a group of Jews herded into a synagogue one is filled with shame. A light court-martial sentence pronounced against some of these criminals was set aside by Brauchitsch; a second sentence, likewise light, was voided by the disgraceful general amnesty for such deeds. And all this time a man like Niemöller has been sitting for years in a concentration camp!

I hear that Blaskowitz, as commander of an army, wanted to prosecute two SS leaders–including that rowdy Sepp Dietrich–for looting and murder. But in vain. Those who saw Warsaw, with its devastation and the many thousands of dead bodies lying around, came away with horrible impressions. Of course the commander of the city should not have permitted this to happen, but the Nazi determination to bring the war to a quick end was primarily responsible.